ROAD ACCIDENTS: 18 DEATHS PER MONTH, ALCOHOL BLAMED

MBABANE – Drink-driving, speeding and overloading, in this order, are the major causes of accidents on the country’s roads.

This was revealed by the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS). Senior Superintendent Lusito Dlamini, a Staff Officer, Traffic and Transport, gave the details of the situation on the country’s road. Initially, the Chief Information and Communications Officer, Superintendent Phindile Vilakati, was contacted but she referred to Lusito, who she said had more detailed statistics on the issue. Lusito said the number of deaths on the roads due to accidents was worrying.

Noteworthy, last Tuesday, four people died on the spot when a Toyota Quantum they were travelling in collided with a Toyota Land Cruiser Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV).  In the Toyota Quantum, it was reported that there were 18 people, meaning that it was overloaded.

Requirement

However, Lusito did not specifically refer to this accident in terms of the causes. The police officer said in terms of the requirement by the United Nations, the number of deaths in the country should not exceed nine for Eswatini, based on the statistics. He said the requirement by the United Nations (UN) is that the number of deaths due to road accidents should be reduced by 50 per cent before 2030. This means that by 2030, if people die in an accident, the total number of deaths should be below five. Lusito said this is not the case for now. He said instead, the number of deaths has increased to 18 per month, adding that this means that the country is failing. He said the number of deaths is very high.

Further, Lusito said that the most common victims of accidents are passengers and pedestrians. When he was asked what the cause of these accidents was, he said the number one problem was drink-driving. He said business owners, particularly those selling alcohol, should work with law enforcers to ensure that the patrons do not drink-drive. He said drink-driving is still a problem as there is evidence to show that accidents are being caused by people who sit behind the wheel while intoxicated. Lusito also said the sad part is that the drink-drivers who cause accidents sometimes flee the scene, without any injuries.

Accident

He said sometimes, a drink-driver can skip a red robot, but this alone can result in another driver losing control of his vehicle and then causing an accident. “It is only when you interview the people that you realise there was a man driving a vehicle and did not stop after the accident,” said Lusito. The police officer then said another cause of accidents is speed. He said in some cases, speed and drink-driving cause accidents. He said when a vehicle is driving very fast, it becomes difficult to stop it and that then results in an accident. Further, Lusito also said the other cause is overloading.He said this is common with people in the public transport industry. Lusito said under normal circumstances, children from the age of six years are supposed to have their own seats. However, he said this is not happening.

Overload

He said instead, it sometimes happens that public transport drivers overload children. Lusito appealed to members of the public, especially business owners, to ensure that they encourage their clients not to drive while under the influence of alcohol.

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